Mozilla Will Debut Firefox OS in Five Countries in June

Mozilla, the nonprofit foundation behind the Firefox browser, is planning to launch a new mobile operating system, Firefox OS. And it plans to debut this year.

According to All Things D, Mozilla plans to launch it at the opening of  D: Dive Into Mobile conference on Monday. Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs said the company is planning a first-wave rollout of the OS that will begin in just a few months.

“We plan to launch in five countries in June and 11 more by the end of the year,” Kovacs said. “We plan to hit Venezuela, Poland, Brazil, Portugal and Spain. … We’ll hit the U.S. in 2014.”

Why target those markets and not bigger ones like the United States?

“In Silicon Valley we tend to see the world through high-end devices,” Kovacs said. “But that’s not true in the rest of the world. So in the short term, we’re launching in emerging markets where Firefox is particularly strong. … It didn’t make sense for us to launch a version-one device around the world.”

We’ll keep you updated on this.